The Gossamer Gear The Free is a freestanding, double-wall ultralight tent made with Robic nylon that weighs 29.8 oz. It has a single front vestibule and requires two multi-segment aluminum tent poles for setup. While it is very lightweight, the tent is quite narrow inside, with a tapered footprint and sloping walls that can feel claustrophobic. The designers clearly optimized for weight over livability, with mixed results.

• Freestanding (inner tent first)
• Trail Weight: 29.8 oz total / 845 g
• Total Weight: 33.02 oz / 935.8 g (including stuff sacks, stakes)
• Minimum tent stakes to pitch: 1 (door) 5-6 recommended
• Interior Dimensions:  head end: 34″ / 86.4 cm; foot end: 21.5″ / 54.6 cm; length: 86″ / 218.4 cm; height: 39″ / 99.1 cm
• Bathtub floor: 7″ deep / 178 cm
• Pockets: 2 – ceiling, corner
• Seam-sealed: Yes
• Materials:  15D Recycled Robic fabric with a 20D dope-dyed ripstop SIL/PU coating (1200 mm)
• Hydrostatic head: 4,923 mm

The inner tent must be pitched first and is suspended from two aluminum poles connected by a pivoting hub.

The Free is a freestanding double-wall tent with a separate inner tent and rainfly, where the inner tent must be set up first. It has two tent poles joined by a central pivoting hub that hooks onto the inner tent ceiling, while the rest attaches to the poles using plastic clips. When setting up the inner tent, it's easiest to stake out the corners before inserting the pole ends into the corner hardware. Once that's done, you can pick up the inner tent and move it to a different location as desired, but trying to insert the poles without a fixed corner is awkward at best, and downright comical if anyone is watching.

The inner tent has a large D-shaped door and bathtub floor

The inner tent has a directional pitch, with a wider head end (34″) and a narrower foot end (21.5″). The inner has a high bathtub floor with a D-shaped door. While the foot end is narrower than many non-tapered or wide inflatable sleeping pads, you can still fit one if you don't mind losing some bathtub-floor height.

The tent walls slope inwards

The inner tent is 86″ long, but the wall slopes in noticeably. When I sat up inside (I'm 5'10”), my shoulders touched the inner tent's side walls; I measured the width here at 12″. While you're less likely to experience internal condensation transfer in a double-wall tent, the Free is pretty narrow and feels like the walls are closing in, making the tent feel more like sleeping in a bivy than a tent.

The poles tend to collapse toward one another even if the corners are staked.

This happens because there isn't a horizontal strut keeping the two overhead crossing poles separated, so they sag toward each other and reduce the tent's effective interior space. I tried fashioning a cross brace like this with sticks, as similar tents from other manufacturers do, but the fly fabric is so slippery that they slid right off. I suspect adding an extra pole component would bump the shelter weight up over 2 pounds, but it'd be worth it to improve the tent's livability.

There are two pockets on the inside of the tent, one in the door-side corner of the head end and the second in the ceiling.  The corner pocket is triangular and should be used with caution. Every time I put my glasses in, they simply slid out, over and over. There's a gear loft overhead and a large plastic hook on the ceiling, and you'd be better off stowing or hanging delicate items from them instead.

You can roll back both vestibule doors for added ventilation and views.

The rainfly drapes over the inner tent and secures to the corner hardware used to stake out the inner tent. There's no way to attach the fly to the pole set, again using tiny toggles or Velcro as provided in other weather-worth tents. I didn't test the tent in high winds, but I'd expect some flapping.

There's a vestibule zipper with a wide fabric flap over the front vestibule to prevent a deluge of rain (onto you) when you unzip the tent in the pouring rain. You can roll back both halves of the vestibule and secure them with toggles. Many competitive ultralight tents now use magnets instead of toggles. You'll appreciate the difference in ease of use when it starts to rain, and you struggle to undo a toggle while staying inside the inner tent.

The Gossamer Gear “The Free” is a one-person freestanding double-wall tent that can be picked up and moved around. 

Assessement

I've used and recommended Gossamer Gear products for a long time, but I'd pass on The Free tent. The Free would be more competitive with a perpendicular cross pole between its existing two tent poles to create more vertical sidewalls inside. It's too confining now.  Several freestanding double-wall tents in the same weight range offer far better internal livability, like the MSR Freelite 1 (26 oz) or the Big Agnes Copper Spur 1P (32 oz). I'd recommend adding them to your short list instead.

Disclosure: Gossamer Gear donated a tent for review.

SectionHiker never accepts payment for gear reviews or editorial coverage. When you buy through affiliate links on our site, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Help us continue to test and write unsponsored and independent gear reviews, hiking and backpacking FAQs, and free hiking guides.